{"id":20075800,"date":"2021-07-14T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=75800"},"modified":"2021-07-19T19:23:30","modified_gmt":"2021-07-19T13:53:30","slug":"bhutan-landslides-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/bhutan-landslides-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Bhutan\u2019s monsoon landslides becoming more deadly?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the morning of 16 June, Bhutan woke up to the tragic news that 10 people had been killed in a landslide at around 1am in the northern district of Gasa. This was the largest number of fatalities in a natural disaster in Bhutan this year. Landslides and flooding<\/a> killed six people in 2019 and four in 2020.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The victims \u2013 seven women and three men \u2013 had been camped with 33 other people from Lungo village at a place called Ri-Drupzhi in Laya Gewog, Gasa district, since 17 May. They were collecting cordyceps<\/a>, a valuable fungus believed to have medical properties, local community leader Lhakpa Tshering told The Third Pole<\/a>. Five others were severely injured, and were airlifted to the National Referral Hospital in the Bhutanese capital Thimphu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rescue was only possible because one of the cordyceps collectors, Phurpa, who was camping some distance away, heard their cries and contacted the local authorities. At least six children in Lungo village have lost their mothers to this landslide, said Pema Wangchuk, a local leader. \u201cThe incident has left highlanders traumatised, and all cordyceps collectors have returned to the village,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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This is not the only landslide to have occurred in Bhutan this year. Pema Singye, chief programme officer at the Department of Disaster Management, said that a 39-year-old woman and her infant son had died while sleeping in their home at Naudhokay village in Phuentsholing, southern Bhutan, when an avalanche of mud struck their home between 1am and 3am on 29 June.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What triggered the landslide?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The town of Laya in Gasa district received continuous and heavy rainfall for three days prior to the incident, said Pema, the local leader of Lungo community. Nearby streams and water sources were swollen from the rain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from the National Centre for Hydrology and Meteorology (NCHM) showed that Gasa district recorded 30 millimetres of rainfall on 12 June and 23 mm on 14 June, the highest rainfall since 29 May, when the district recorded 49 mm of precipitation. Karma Tsering, senior remote sensing and geoinformation specialist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), said that this amount of rainfall is very high for highland areas, and could have triggered the landslide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe continuous rainfall received prior to the day of the incident is the most likely cause of the landslide in Laya, because that was the only known disturbance occurring in the area during that particular time,\u201d said Tsering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tsering said that other landslides might have occurred elsewhere in the highland area during this period, but might not have been reported due to the area\u2019s low population. Landslides are common during high rainfall in highland areas, but the June incident became a tragedy because people were camped there, said Tsering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the NCHM\u2019s warnings, the government has not been monitoring rainfall with as much detail as usual due to Covid-19 restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other than excess rainfall, soil destabilised by construction activities in the area might have contributed to the problem, Tsering added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A 2019 study<\/a> looking at Chukha district in southwest Bhutan found that 53 mm of rainfall over a period of 24 hours was the threshold for landslides to occur. Precipitation above 88 mm over 10 days, and above 142 mm over 20 days, was found to be the threshold after which such disasters become much more likely.\u00a0Despite this knowledge being available, and an increase in the number of intense rainfall events over the last few years, no comprehensive system of landslide warning has been created in Bhutan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n